Notes and Editorial Reviews

This is a fascinating and enjoyable release of a major work by an important 20th-century composer. Boris Blacher composed his chamber opera Romeo and Juliet to Shakespeare's own text (much-abridged by the composer) in 1943, in Nazi Germany, where he already was in disfavor on account of his Jewish origins. Accordingly, this gently pacifist work had to wait until after the Second World War to receive its first performance. Scored for nine players (string quartet, bass, flute, bassoon, trumpet, and piano) plus a handful of soloists who do double duty as a quartet-chorus, the work gets through the entire story in 18 short scenes (six per act) lasting about 70 minutes. Introducing each act is a brief "chanson", pointing up the music'sRead more debt to cabaret and popular song idioms. Indeed, Blacher's score is remarkably light and rhythmically deft, bittersweet rather than heavily tragic, and full of fragile lyricism. It makes an impression all the more powerful for being at once understated but youthful (check out the Balcony Scene that closes Act 1).

The performance here is very accomplished. The nine instrumentalists of the Chesapeake Chamber Orchestra under conductor Jeffrey Silberschlag play very well, and the soloists range from good (tenor David Robinson's slightly strained and grainy Romeo) to excellent (N'Kenge Simpson's winsome Juliet, and Leneida Crawford in several roles). Blacher's sequence of solos and ensembles creates an unusually wide range of contrast within each act, and this, combined with the singers' fine diction and Albany's very clean and clear engineering, makes for a memorable listening experience.

It's a pity that this disc probably won't get much attention in Germany, where Blacher's music deserves to be given classic status at least on a par with that of, say, Hindemith. He was a superb craftsman with a distinct personal style. Hopefully this disc will earn him some new friends and give some other community-based small opera companies a worthy addition to their repertoire.